Tim Burton’s 1999 film Sleepy Hollow is set in the fictionalized village of Sleepy Hollow.
The film follows Ichabod Crane, played by Johnny Depp, a police constable sent from New York City to investigate a series of murders. The village is dominated by fear of the Headless Horseman, a supernatural figure connected to the area’s violent history and local power struggles.
Burton’s version draws on Washington Irving’s 1820 story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” but it changes the tone, plot, and characterization substantially. Irving’s original story is a comic-gothic tale centered on Ichabod Crane, while Burton’s film is a darker murder mystery with elaborate production design and supernatural horror.
The film calls the settlement a village, although the real Sleepy Hollow is a town in New York’s Westchester County. The movie’s setting should therefore not be confused with a precise documentary depiction of the real community or with the nearby historic location associated with Irving.